Report of colon cancer detection in mass surveys using immunological occult blood test (Latex method).

Occult blood test for the screening of colon cancer has been made by immunological method using latex agglutination for 4 years since 1988. A total of 35,139 persons have received the screening test and out of 1886 persons, that is, 5.4% showed positive. Five hundred seventy of the positive result subjects (30.2%) underwent barium enema examination. Three hundred fifty nine subjects (62.8%) showed some abnormal findings. They underwent colonoscopic examination and 45 of them (7.9%) had colon cancer. Twenty six of these were of early stage type and 19 persons were of advanced stage.